NASA Identifies Newly Discovered Object as an Interstellar Comet That Will Keep a Safe Distance
The newest visitor is 416 million miles (670 million kilometers) from the sun, out near Jupiter. NASA said the comet will make its closest approach to the sun in October, scooting between the orbits of Mars and Earth – but closer to the red planet than us at a safe 150 million miles (240 million kilometers) away. Astronomers around the world are monitoring the comet – an icy snowball officially designated 3I/Atlas – to determine its size and shape. It should be visible by telescopes through September before it gets too close to the sun and reappear in December on the other side of the sun.
The first interstellar visitor observed from Earth was 'Oumuamua, Hawaiian for 'scout,' in honor of the observatory in Hawaii that discovered it in 2017. Classified at first as an asteroid, the elongated 'Oumuamua has since showed signs of being a comet. The second object confirmed to have strayed from another star system into our own – 2I/Borisov – was discovered in 2019 by a Crimean amateur astronomer with that name. It, too, is believed to be a comet.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Arab News
4 days ago
- Arab News
India's ambitious space plans: Missions to Moon, Mars and Venus
Reaching for the stars is becoming an everyday affair at India's space agency. Having visited the Moon and Mars with orbital missions, eyes are set on a mission to Venus and a sample return from the Moon. Human space flight — to fly an Indian citizen on an Indian rocket from Indian soil where the countdown will also be by India — is also taking shape fast. India's space journey reached new heights with the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3 nearer the Moon's South Pole on Aug. 23, 2023, making India the first country to achieve this feat. This mission demonstrated Indian Space Research Organization's capability in precision lunar landing and roving. The Vikram lander performed a hop experiment, and the propulsion module was later maneuvered into Earth's orbit for extended operations. Building on this momentum, ISRO achieved its 100th rocket launch in January 2025, launching a navigation satellite, showcasing India's indigenous cryogenic engine technology. The pinnacle came with the July 30, 2025 launch of the nearly $1.3 billion NASA ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar or NISAR satellite, a joint Indo-US Earth observation mission. Launched aboard India's GSLV F-16, NISAR features dual-frequency SAR payloads from NASA and ISRO, and will monitor climate change, disasters, and agriculture. ISRO Chairman Dr. V. Narayanan hailed it as a symbol of India's technological leadership and global collaboration, emphasizing the precision and reliability of India's cryogenic launch systems. In a landmark achievement for India's space program, Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla completed a 20-day mission, including 18 days aboard the International Space Station, as part of the multinational Axiom-4 mission — dubbed Mission Akash Ganga. This marks India's first human spaceflight since that of Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma in 1984. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that Shukla's courage and dedication had inspired 'a billion dreams.' Launched aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9, Shukla served as mission pilot and conducted seven India-specific experiments. Despite delays, the mission concluded successfully with a splashdown near San Diego. It lays the foundation for India's Gaganyaan mission, targeting a 2027 launch from Indian soil. India's roadmap does not stop at Gaganyaan. Prime Minister Modi has outlined a bold vision: Establish an Indian space station by 2035 and land an Indian on the moon by 2040. If successful, India will join the elite club of nations— Russia, the US and China — with independent indigenous human spaceflight capabilities. India's lunar legacy is already formidable. India's first foray to the moon with the Chandrayaan-1 mission in 2008 discovered the presence of water molecules on the moon, fundamentally altering lunar geological history. Chandrayaan-2 provided the first independent images of Apollo mission artefacts left on the lunar surface, and Chandrayaan-3 made global headlines by landing nearer the moon's South Pole — now considered the gold rush zone for lunar exploration. With cost-effective yet reliable space missions, India is poised to become a major player in the global space race. The government has already allocated billions of dollars for the human spaceflight program, underscoring its commitment to cosmic exploration. India's Science Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh, who also looks after the affairs of the department of space, says 'India's quantum leap in space research with India's space economy standing at $8 billion has been only possible due to the courageous decision to open up or unlock the space sector from the shackles of the past,' further highlighting that 'India's space economy is projected to grow beyond $40 billion by 2040, which is going to be a gigantic jump.' The future space missions include a lunar sample return mission named Chandrayaan-4; a mission to Venus; the development of the new mighty rocket. As part of this ambitious roadmap, India plans to establish its own space station, the Bhartiya Antariksha Station, by 2035. A precursor to this will be the launch of a space module in 2028. The culmination of this vision is the planned landing of an Indian astronaut on the moon by 2040. 'When we celebrate the 100th year of India's independence, in 2047, an Indian flag will already be flying on the moon,' Singh said. New Delhi achieved its 100th rocket launch in January this year Pallava Bagla In a historic collaboration between the US and India, the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite, also known as NISAR, is poised to revolutionize how we observe and understand our planet. It launched successfully on July 30, 2025 from the Satish Dhawan Space Center at Sriharikota in southern India. At its core, NISAR is designed to monitor changes in the Earth's surface with unprecedented precision, capturing movements as small as a centimeter. This capability is vital for tracking natural hazards such as earthquakes, landslides, volcanic activity and glacial shifts, as well as human-induced changes such as urban expansion, agricultural development and infrastructure stress. ISRO says the NISAR satellite weighs 2,392 kg, and it will scan the globe and provide all-weather, day-and-night data at a 12-day interval and enable a wide range of applications. The NISAR satellite, which cost upwards of $1.3 billion, can detect changes in the Earth's surface, such as ground deformation, ice sheet movement and vegetation dynamics. Further applications include sea and ice classification, ship detection, shoreline monitoring, storm characterization, changes in soil moisture, mapping and monitoring of surface water resources and disaster response. It has been dubbed a lifesaving satellite. Today, more than 250 space start-ups are driving innovation and fueling India's space sector. Among these, Agnikul Cosmos and Skyroot Aerospace made headlines by launching sub-orbital rockets and Pixxel Aerospace makes high-resolution satellites. A recent study estimates that for every dollar spent on space, India has reportedly received a return of $2.52. India has end-to-end capabilities in space, as the country makes its own rockets, satellites and has an enviable space technology applications portfolio. Today, India has more than 50 operational satellites in space, which help to power India's burgeoning economy. India's vast space ecosystem touches the lives of every Indian. • Pallava Bagla is an award-winning science journalist. He is science editor for New Delhi Television and co-author of 'Reaching for the Stars.' He can be reached at
Al Arabiya
6 days ago
- Al Arabiya
Scientists find 74-million-year-old mammal fossil in Chile
Scientists have discovered the fossil of a tiny mouse-sized mammal that lived in the time of the dinosaurs in Chilean Patagonia. Yeutherium pressor weighed between 30 and 40 grams (about one ounce) and lived in the Upper Cretaceous period, about 74 million years ago. For all the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app. It is the smallest mammal ever found in this region of South America, dating back to the era when it was part of a continental land mass known as Gondwana. The fossil consists of 'a small piece of jaw with a molar and the crown and roots of two other molars,' said Hans Puschel, who led the team of scientists from the University of Chile and Chile's Millennium Nucleus research center on early mammals. The discovery was published this month in the British scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Researchers found the fossil in the Rio de las Las Chinas Valley in Chile's Magallanes region, about 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles) south of Santiago. Despite its similarity to a small rodent, Yeutherium pressor was a mammal that must have laid eggs, like the platypus, or carried its young in a pouch like kangaroos or opossums. The shape of its teeth suggests that it probably had a diet of relatively hard vegetables. Just like the dinosaurs with whom it coexisted, the tiny mammal abruptly went extinct at the end of the Cretaceous period, about 66 million years ago.
Asharq Al-Awsat
09-08-2025
- Asharq Al-Awsat
US Astronaut Jim Lovell, Commander of Apollo 13, Dead at 97
US astronaut Jim Lovell, the commander of the Apollo 13 Moon mission which nearly ended in disaster in 1970 after a mid-flight explosion, has died at the age of 97, NASA announced Friday. The former Navy pilot, who was portrayed by actor Tom Hanks in the 1995 movie "Apollo 13," died in a Chicago suburb on Thursday, the US space agency said in a statement. The astronaut's "life and work inspired millions of people across the decades," NASA said, praising his "character and steadfast courage." Lovell travelled to the Moon twice but never walked on the lunar surface, reported AFP. Yet he is considered one of the greats of the US space program after rescuing a mission that teetered on the brink of disaster as the world watched in suspense far below. "There are people who dare, who dream, and who lead others to the places we would not go on our own," Hanks said in an Instagram post. "Jim Lovell, who for a long while had gone farther into space and for longer than any other person of our planet, was that kind of guy." 'Houston, we've had a problem' Launched on April 11, 1970 -- nine months after Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the Moon -- Apollo 13 was intended to be humanity's third lunar landing. The plan was that Lovell would walk on the Moon. The mission, which was also crewed by astronauts Jack Swigert and Fred Haise, was already considered fairly routine. Then an oxygen tank exploded on the way there. The disaster prompted Swigert to famously tell mission control: "Houston, we've had a problem." Lovell then repeated the phrase, which is slightly different to the one used in the Ron Howard movie, according to NASA. The three astronauts and crew on the ground scrambled to find a solution. The United States followed the chaotic odyssey from the ground, fearing that the country could lose its first astronauts in space. Around 200,000 miles from Earth, the crew was forced to shelter in their Lunar Module, slingshot around the Moon and rapidly return to Earth. The composed leadership of Lovell -- who was nicknamed "Smilin' Jim" -- and the ingenuity of the NASA team on the ground managed to get the crew safely back home. Lovell was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, but never returned to space. 'Our Hero' Born on March 25, 1928 in Cleveland, Ohio, Lovell worked as a Navy pilot before joining NASA. He was one of three astronauts who became the first people to orbit the Moon during the Apollo 8 mission in 1968. The mission also took the famous image "Earthrise," in which the blue planet peeks out from beyond the Moon. Lovell's family said they were "enormously proud of his amazing life and career," according to a statement released by NASA. "But, to all of us, he was Dad, Granddad, and the Leader of our family. Most importantly, he was our Hero," the statement added. "We will miss his unshakeable optimism, his sense of humor, and the way he made each of us feel we could do the impossible."
